NHL draft: Halifax goalie, 3 Screaming Eagles taken on Day 2

Mason McDonald of Halifax was the first goalie selected in this year's NHL draft, going 34th overall to the Calgary Flames. (Calgary Flames / Twitter)

Mason McDonald will always be able to say he was the first goalie picked in the 2014 NHL draft.

The Calgary Flames selected the Charlottetown Islanders netminder with the fourth pick of the second round (34th overall) in Philadelphia on Saturday, making it two years in a row a QMJHL goalie was first off the board. Zachary Fucale of the Halifax Mooseheads was the first goalie taken in 2013 (36th overall by the Montreal Canadiens).

“It’s an honour to be the first goalie selected, not many guys can say that,” McDonald, 18, said to Aaron Vickers of CalgaryFlames.com. “It’s great that it happened.

“I’m very happy about that. I knew that there was a chance coming in that I could be the first goalie and when it happened, I was relieved of all the stress that was building up in me. I was sitting in the chair shaking. I was pretty nervous. Being picked by Calgary, I was pretty happy.”

The Halifax native was the third QMJHL player selected, going immediately after the St. Louis Blues picked Moncton Wildcats forward Ivan Barbashev 33rd overall. Mooseheads forward Nikolaj Ehlers was the only Quebec leaguer picked in the first round. He went ninth overall to the Winnipeg Jets.

“(The Flames) were one of the teams that I had in the back of my mind that I thought would be taking me,” McDonald said to Vickers. “When it happened I was really excited.

“I talked to them at the Combine and I talked to a guy in Calgary last week. They were one of the teams that showed a little more interest than others. It was between them and two others that I kind of had in the back of my mind and I’m glad to be selected by them.”

McDonald spent the first season and a half of his Quebec league career with the Bathurst Titan but was traded to Charlottetown at mid-season. He really raised his game after the deal, which boosted his stock with the scouts.

“I’m just very excited to go to a great organization like Calgary,” McDonald told Vickers. “It’s a great city, I was there a few weeks ago at the goalie camp and I really like it there. It’s a nice new city and I’m just excited. The nerves are gone now.

A third Screaming Eagles player went in the seventh round. Nineteen-year-old forward Cameron Darcy was taken 185th overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning after an outstanding first season in Cape Breton. The Boston native came to the QMJHL to help spark interest from the scouts and produced 82 points in 65 games to earn a spot on the league’s second all-star team.